The Minister of Forests says the BC Wildfire Service is expected to be fully staffed for the season by Friday. Ravi Parmar visited Kamloops Friday, making a stop in at the provincial wildfire co-ordination centre for a visit. “By this time next week, we will be fully staffed, fully resourced as an agency, but as you’re seeing with fires popping up, our initial attack is responding quickly,” Parmar told reporters. Parmar said the BCWS has up to 700 year-round wildland firefighters. Following recently completed training camps, he said the province will be hiring an additional 250 firefighters for the 2026 season, which, when combined with all the contractors will have more than 2,000 personnel for fore season once again. As for where most firefighters will be stationed this summer, Parmar said they are deployed to areas the BCWS believe they will be busy, noting resources in the northeast have been repositioned due to recent rain.